Cumbria Wedding Band – ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ inspired Wedding Entertainment at the stunning Cumbrian Wedding Venue – Askham Hall
Askham Hall really is the definition of the quintessential english wedding venue. The hall is set within the Lake District National Park; to those who are not familiar with this area then I would highly recommend a visit! It boosts unspoilt natural lakes, forests and mountains.
The Grade I listed manor house is situated within the very attractive village of Askham. It really is the perfect Cumbrian venue for hosting weddings. Firstly, should you wish for a religious ceremony you have access to St Peter’s Church which is opposite the hall. Alternatively, Askham have one of these finest wedding barns in the Lake District. This grade II listed building has been sympathetically restored and has the capacity to hold 156 guests for civil ceremonies.
Accommodation isn’t an issue either…Askham Hall have 18 bedrooms + manage the charming Queen’s Head which is in Askham village. Complimenting their portfolio, Askham also manage the George and the Dragon. This is situated in the neighbouring village of Clifton and offers accommodation with 11 bedrooms. This really does provide Askham Hall with a unique service, from personal experience accommodation is hugely important when planning an english country wedding!
I would imagine for these reasons alone Claire and Sam decided that Askham Hall was the venue for them. Based in America and with guests travelling from over the pond, the idea of booking a venue which can accommodate all wedding party + close family and friends within the vicinity was a no brainer, not to mention Askham Hall’s private spa!
We are very proud to work with Askham Hall as a preferred wedding supplier. Along with our strong reputation and confidence given by the wedding team at Askham Hall Claire and Sam decide to embark on bringing to life their musical vision for the entertainment for their entirety of the day.
Our versatility of music styles matched with our comprehensive range of artists allowed Claire and Sam to essentially have what they wanted played out live throughout the day. You can read more about how we operate as a collective in this blog (What Is A Collective?) should you be interested!
Claire and Sam were very keen to have americian music influences included throughout the day and specified that saxophone was to play a prominent role in their day. They did have one dilemma…..how best to move on the wedding party and guests from St Peter’s Church to Askhall Hall – fear not, music came to the rescue and we incorporated the southern americian tradition whereby a musician / band lead the wedding party onwards to the venue! The Bloomsbury 9 Piece Wedding Band was already booked for their evening entertainment, this enabled us to use the saxophonist to musically usher people from the church ceremony over to the hall in a pied piper fashion!
This worked brilliantly and our saxophonist performed the following 4 songs by the classic americian artists –
Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
Isn’t she lovely by Stevie Wonder
Happy by Pharrel Williams
Hey Soul Sister by Train
As you can see from the photos there was a real party festival vibe orchestrated by the solo saxophonist, from roaming outside the church to leading guests over to the hall for the drinks reception this really did get the celebrations underway!
For the drinks receptions we pulled 5 musicians from the evening band including the saxophonist to perform an acoustic band set while the champagne flowed. Keeping true to their routes, Claire and Sam requested that the 2 hour set needed to have a traditional americian feel and requested motown songs to be performed throughout the reception.
As a music collective we’re extremely fortunate to work with some of the very best professional musicians in the north and south of England. With this in mind, we were able to hand pick a group of versatile musicians who had the experience and capabilities to perform 2 hours worth of motown followed by a mix of dance floor classics in the evening with our wedding band.
Live music is an integral part of Bloomsbury Event Group but alongside specialising in event music we also offer our clients production hire. These two aspects of the event services go hand in hand, especially for weddings. Claire and Sam AV requirements were to provide wireless microphones during the wedding breakfast to assist with speeches. Alongside this, they also required suitable AV for Askham Hall wedding barn to play a pre recorded wedding mix provided by ourselves for the meal.
Claire and Sam’s only request was to source a wedding band which would get the party started with bang and make sure the dance floor was full at ALL times – no pressure!! Our 9 piece wedding band certainly fitted the bill and even managed to set dance off’s up between the guys and the gals!
They had one song request in particular which HAD to be played as Claire is from Alabama, I’m sure you guess the tune….! Sweet Home Alabama.
Credits
Photography: Jess Reeves Photography
Wedding Co-ordinator & Styling: Tebbey & Co
Venue: Askham Hall
